Chapter 117. The Jarvey's Warning
Pro was holding what seemed to be part of a sphere, its surface rough and engraved with patterns.
Duncan felt it looked familiar and held out his hand.
"Quick, let me see.
I feel like I've seen this somewhere."
"Oh..."
Pro slowly shifted its paws, hesitated, let go, and the thing dropped into Duncan's palm.
Duncan lifted it in one hand and, by the glow at the tip of his wand, examined the designs closely.
In the criss-crossing grid was a tiny letter "H," and a proud little lion stood atop the letter.
"This seems to be the key to that door in the Black Lake."
Duncan compared it with the image in his mind and murmured.
"Ah?"
Pro's eyes widened slightly.
"Are you sure you didn't see it wrong?"
It hadn't expected the thing it picked up at random to be so important, and it hadn't forgotten the beautiful radiance it had seen in the Black Lake.
If they could obtain the treasure behind that door and hug it to sleep every day, how blissful would that be?
Pro didn't even realise that the corners of its mouth had drawn back on their own, and a thread of glistening drool slid from the corner of its lips.
"It should be right."
After flipping it over and over, Duncan answered with certainty.
"On that door in the Black Lake there are the representative creatures of Hogwarts' four houses: lion, badger, eagle, and snake."
"The pattern here is a lion, which is the Gryffindor portion of the key."
Hearing Duncan's words, Pro's joy lessened a little.
"So you mean, if we want to open the door, we still have to find the other three keys?"
Duncan smiled.
"Pro, you've finally got a bit smarter.
That's exactly right!"
"Then where do we go to find the rest?"
Pro ignored Duncan's teasing and said dejectedly, "We only got this far because we were lucky, with the Giant Squid happening to give us a sculpture.
And even then we ran into so many dangers.
Who knows what terrible traps those other three left in the places where they stored their keys."
"That's not the way to think."
Duncan lifted Pro onto his shoulder and steadied it.
"You should be happy.
In such a short time we found a key that the merpeople couldn't find for hundreds or even thousands of years.
It's only part of it, but that's lucky enough.
If we keep this momentum, I believe we can definitely find the remaining keys."
Listening to Duncan, Pro slowly regained confidence.
It puffed out its cheeks and nodded.
"You're right.
From now on I'll keep working hard and won't let any suspicious clue in the castle slip by, so we can find the remaining keys as soon as possible!"
"That's the spirit, but don't go running off on your own.
Mind you don't run into Filch."
Duncan chuckled and headed towards the stairs.
Pro's pumped-up bravado instantly deflated.
It hesitated for a long time, then whispered, "Duncan, shouldn't we add some new members to the case?
Ari, Charlie, and those Acromantulas are willing to follow my orders, but they're a bit dim, and it's hard to direct them.
Kray and Mori, who are only a bit less dense than me, won't answer to me at all!"
"Ugh, it's so hard for me!"
Pro burbled on and on, finally baring the knife.
"Shouldn't you find me a few helpers?
Then I definitely wouldn't be afraid of Filch!"
"How about I call the house-elves back?"
Duncan laughed.
"Nofi's very clever—just what you want."
"No, don't!"
Pro waved its paws in a panic, a vision of being chased in headlong flight by the house-elves flashing through its mind.
"Since you don't want that, there's nothing I can do..."
Duncan shrugged.
Pro put on a brave look of facing death unflinchingly.
"Fine, let me face the evil Filch alone.
I'll definitely defeat him!"
Hearing Pro's declaration, Duncan's lips curled in a smile.
He knew that, in most cases, this fellow absolutely wouldn't dare sneak out of the dormitory.
Climbing the stairs back to the hall above, several magical creatures gathered round to ask what treasure Duncan had obtained.
Duncan smiled, showed them the clothes on him, then walked to the upright swordsman statue.
He waved his wand and, following the record on the parchment he had obtained earlier, spoke a specific incantation.
A pale blue light flashed.
The statue rumbled out an acknowledgement, sheathed its longsword, stood tall, and in the blink of an eye shrank to the size of a palm.
It was similar to the hero statue he had obtained before.
When used, he only needed to speak the incantation again, and the statue would return to its original form, draw its longsword, and fight for him.
It was just that those axe-bearing stone statues in the passage had all been shattered by the Erumpent's charge, and for the moment he had no way to repair them.
Otherwise he could already have a whole army of stone statues that feared no spell attack.
That would definitely give those wizards a huge surprise!
After putting all the magical creatures and the longsword from before into the case, Duncan walked out of the passage.
Looking at the fragments of stone strewn all over the ground, he felt a dull ache in his heart.
He could only quietly comfort himself that the gains from this venture were already more than enough.
And the fact that it couldn't be done now didn't mean it couldn't be done later.
Store it here first; when he found a way to repair them, he could come back to collect them.
Thinking so, Duncan felt much better, and his steps grew lighter.
After taking some soil from the hatching pool and putting it into the spiders' burrow in the case, Duncan headed quickly for the exit of the cave.
He had already been out for quite some time.
If he hurried back now, he might still get a few hours of sleep.
Duncan bent over and pushed through the tangled spider webs, then strode to the edge of the depression when a grey-white figure darted to his feet.
It was the Jarvey that had helped him find the troll, hopping anxiously up and down as if it had something extremely urgent to report.
"Don't rush.
Say it slowly."
Duncan crouched and spoke softly to the Jarvey.
"Th-there's an idiot over there."
The Jarvey stammered.
"Black-clad idiot!"
In the Jarvey's vocabulary, "idiot" usually meant a human, and a "black-clad idiot" meant a person wearing black.
Out in the forest this late at night, it definitely wasn't anyone good.
Who could it be?
Could it be Quirrell?
Was his injury so severe that he couldn't hold on any longer, forcing him to come and drink unicorn blood?
Duncan thought for a moment and said, "Where is that person?
Take me there, quickly."
The Jarvey nodded, spun nimbly around, and sprinted ahead, glancing back from time to time to see if Duncan was keeping up.
After it had run a distance and looked back again, it suddenly found the person following it had disappeared.
The Jarvey grew anxious at once, thinking Duncan was lost, and turned to go back and search.
Just then Duncan's voice came from an empty spot.
"Don't worry, I'm right behind you.
Just keep running."
He had already taken an Invisibility Potion earlier.
When facing an unknown enemy, it was always better to stay hidden in the dark.
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